Taking a Look at Some Cloud Complications

When it comes to implementing new technology solutions, it’s easy to get distracted by all of the great possibilities and miss all of the challenges that it represents. The cloud in particular represents countless chances to improve operations and enhance efficiency, but the side of this is that there are many issues that could arise during the cloud migration process. Let’s consider some of these challenges and how we can help you get around them.

Security

The biggest and perhaps most noteworthy issue that arises with cloud migration is security, and it’s easy to see why. When you move data or applications to the cloud, you are essentially letting it live in an online environment where it can be accessed as needed. This presents all sorts of complications that must be considered. How is it accessed? Where is it stored? What kind of cloud is the best fit for the security needs of this particular data or application?

A good example is the public cloud versus the private cloud; while the public cloud might be great for accessibility and ease of use, the private cloud will enhance security considerably by giving you more options. Traditionally, the public cloud does not allow for the dynamic security solutions that businesses might want for their cloud infrastructures, but private clouds do.

Compatibility

Whether or not you should migrate to the cloud is a serious question to entertain, as well. Just because you can move applications or data into the cloud doesn’t mean that you always should. Sometimes it’s better in terms of privacy regulations to keep data stored in-house where it is “safer” and easier to centralize compared to the cloud. You also might need to consider whether or not the applications that you want to host in the cloud are compatible or user-friendly in a cloud-based environment. Some resource-intensive applications might require significant amounts of bandwidth in order to function properly, and it might turn into a question of whether the convenience and ease of access is worth the monetary investment.

Scalability

How easy is it for you to add more data storage, more users, or more features to your cloud-based applications or storage solutions? You will want to have a solid understanding of each of these for every application of the cloud you have for your organization. It also helps to plan for change and scale for growth in this regard; failing to do so could lead to your business spending too much time and too many resources than anticipated, potentially killing your budget and increasing the cost of implementation far beyond what you had initially expected.

If you are unsure of how to progress toward cloud migration, SMART Services can help your business navigate through these challenges. Most important of all, we can do all of the work of migrating your data to the cloud so that you can instead focus on the process of keeping your organization’s operations in proper working order, minimizing downtime and the risk of a botched migration. To learn more, reach out to us at 586 258-0650 .